Friday, September 26, 2014

Battling Superbugs With Gene-Editing System

MIT engineers have now turned a powerful new weapon on these
superbugs. Using a gene-editing system that can disable any target gene,
they have shown that they can selectively kill bacteria carrying
harmful genes that confer antibiotic resistance or cause disease.

Led by Timothy Lu, an associate professor of biological engineering
and electrical engineering and computer science, the researchers
described their findings in the Sept. 21 issue of Nature Biotechnology.
Last month, Lu's lab reported a different approach to combating
resistant bacteria by identifying combinations of genes that work
together to make bacteria more susceptible to antibiotics.

Lu hopes that both technologies will lead to new drugs to help fight the growing crisis posed by drug-resistant bacteria...